Live Review : SOS Festival on July 1st 2023

Saturday starts for me with Scarsun, a fairly generic alt metal female fronted band. They are doomy and gothy and it turns out this is only their second gig with this singer. She's actually really rather good and it's not bad at all in a gloomy melancholic sort of way.

Next up there's a change of plan and we have The Event, unbilled as they were a last minute stand-in. They played melodic AOR and I really liked them. It was inoffensive and toe tappy. The vocals were good, the playing was good and the songs were good. Not outstanding perhaps, but pretty decent. 

The Hot One Two are energetic and have lots of hey hey moments and air punching. Again it's fairly generic rock/metal but the guitarist has a Wildhearts T-shirt on so I forgive him. Musically it’s very much in the vein of The Almighty but with enough originality to make them a decent enough band who are great at what they do.  

White Tygër, the Midlands-based glam hard rockers, liven things up a bit. They may have started as a covers band but they have worked their lycra-clad arses off to build on that and become a definite One To Watch now they are writing and performing their own material. They're loud and in-yer-face, belting out hard rock with a glittery edge in their own inimitable style. Think Metallica but with sequins. They go from sleazy to heavy in a heartbeat and despite being a party band those cowboy-boot-clad feet can really kick ass. Band of the day for me, absolutely loved them.  

Blue Nation are a three-piece heavy blues band. Technically they were excellent and  if fuzzy blues is your thing they are probably worth a punt. The crowd certainly loved them

Thorium have come all the way from Belgium and they are basically Iron Maiden reincarnated. The singer has apparently played at SOS before in a previous band and he does look and sound vaguely familiar but I can’t remember who they were. It’s power metal in spades, with more Harris Foot, the main difference being that these guys were probably his contemporaries rather than his imitators. They're very metal, very fun and I really enjoyed them. 

I only caught a few bars of Metaprism but what I saw was interesting. They were probably the heaviest band of the weekend, with a twin male/female growl and clean vocal, and they went down surprisingly well with what was a crowd predominantly there for something a little less intense. 

The Luke Appleton Power Trio does what it says on the tin. It's Luke with long-term collaborator Rishi Mehta and a drummer of unknown provenance. It’s melodic and powerful, mostly taken from Luke's recent solo album but also dipping into his extensive back catalogue with Absolva and Iced Earth. Luke is back to bass for this set and showcases his voice, which is generally relegated to backing vocals despite being quite pleasant. Theresa Smïth, Metaprism vocalist joins them on to do a power ballad which was surprisingly a mellow tune. Luke is an unassuming chap, whose quiet demeanour hides a pretty awesome musical talent – I reckon if you cut him open he would bleed guitar strings.  

Headliners Ward XVI are possibly the most difficult live band I have ever reviewed. I want to explain their theatrical shock-rock to you in intimate detail but at the same time they are a concept band, so I don’t want to go into too much detail because if you have never seen them you really should go – it’s quite an experience! 

Essentially they tell the story of a serial killer, each album tell us how she came to be criminally insane and focuses on another area of her life. The show relies heavily on tapes (which irks me) and theatrics (which I enjoy) and it's good but quite hard work in a setting like this.

The singer has a brilliant voice and the band are very tight but I'm just not entirely sure where they can take this, it can be hard to follow at times if you don't know the story and does require your full attention. There was a small crowd at the front who were really into it but at the same time lots left or stood at the back chatting throughout the set. I feel it works better as a full-on theatre experience when they headline a gig where people are fully committed and know what to expect. 

I really enjoyed it but got the impression that many didn't get it, which is their loss. The music was well-performed but dips more than a toe into 70’s style heavy prog - think King Crimson territory. Actually it's not a dip, it's more of a full body baptism but goes down a treat with their admirers down the front and is definitely entertaining. Everyone needs to go and check Ward XVI at least once to form their own opinion, and in the meantime I’ll just sit here picking splinters out of my bum cos I’ve been sitting on this fence for so long!  

So that was the end of the official bands but as Ben Shepherd says every day in Tipping Point “It’s not over yet”. Tonight’s aftershow is the SOS crew all stars, a chance for some of the people who make this festival happen to put on some fancy dress, grab an instrument, and rock out with some serious covers. No, scratch that, none of this is serious, at all! My sober driver informs me we will just watch a song or two before heading home but after nearly an hour of party fuelled singalongs we stumble back to the car park still yelling the choruses and laughing.  

For me sadly this was the end of this year’s SOS Festival as I was unable to make the Sunday due to a prior commitment. You can, however, find pictures of the Sunday bands in our gallery page “In The Flesh”, and I’m already looking forward to getting back there next year even if it did get a little crushed indoors sometimes! 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Ward XVI, The Luke Appleton Power Trio, Metaprism, Thorium, Blue Nation, White Tygër, The Hot One Two, The Event, Scarsun